The Data
You’ll have to click through to the article for a full rundown of Pew’s methods, but here’s a chart that visualizes how senators’ number of Facebook followers dips farther the closer they are towards the platonic ideal of the moderate politician.
Pew also gives a few examples of the most ideologically driven senators and their Facebook fanbases. A notable outlier is the relatively moderate John McCain, but his 2008 presidential run accounts for his over-a-million followers.
Why?
Pew offers two possible reasons why moderates have it so bad. First, moderates don’t have content that’s — to use the industry term — super sharable. The other reason Pew floats? Media attention: And if you were wondering, here are the last few tidbits of information Pew Research has shared with the world: The internet is getting worse; we’re on our phones all the time, and online trust is going down the drain. Someone needs to lighten up a little. (Kidding, Pew Research, I still love you.)
